Journals Resist a Drug Company's Subpoenas, Citing the Threat to Peer Review

This is from todays Chronicle of Higher Education:

Journals Resist a Drug Company's Subpoenas, Citing the Threat to Peer Review

By LILA GUTERMAN

Grandiose language has appeared in the pages of medical journals this month, as well as in federal court, about a looming threat to peer review.

The threat comes in the form of subpoenas from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer requesting confidential peer reviews and editors' comments about two of Pfizer's arthritis drugs: Celebrex and Bextra. The latter is now off the market, and Pfizer is defending itself in court against plaintiffs who think they were injured as a result of taking one of the drugs.

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JoVE

Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is a video journal for biological research. Here is more

Electronic Resources IG meeting

I volunteered to blog for ALA Midwinter 2008 LITA Electronic Resources IG meeting Friday night.

The IG meeting on Friday night attracted an impressive group of information professionals, with standing room available only. Zoe Stewart-Marshall, an ERMIG Chair and Clara Ruttenberg, an ERMIG Vice Chair started the meeting with Electronic Resources IG mission statement and goals

http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litamembership/litaigs/erm/index.cfm

Zoe announced that Vice Chair position, responsible for organizing managed discussions, will be open. Those interested are invited to apply. Also, any suggestions for topics to be covered at
ALA annual are welcomed.

The first presenter, Ted Fons from Innovative Interfaces, Inc gave a brief overview of the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) and a positive update that the standard was approved by NISO. He indicated differences between SUSHI and COUNTER. COUNTER is good on how to report the statistics on a smaller scale. SUSHI allows query for usage data through web services and saves time for staff. It took 18-20 months for the idea to be implemented. Last October the standard was finalized and approved for use, it is now standard Z39-93. Project EUCLID, Highwire Press, Gale all implemented SUSHI Server online. As of right now, content providers are at some stage of implementing SUHSI server. Mr. Fons jokingly suggested thanking your content providers for getting on board. There are several SUSHI versions, now we just need one efficient model. Read more about SUSHI: http://www.niso.org/committees/SUSHI/SUSHI_comm.html and http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-93-2007.pdf

READ MORE HERE

ALA Midwinter 2008: Philadelphia

The 2008 ALA Midwinter meeting was in a beautiful Philadelphia. Since I arrived early on Friday morning, I was able to look around a little bit, before the opening ceremony.

Penn's landing

Benjamin Franklin Bridge

I loved the carriage on this door



Elfreth's Alley

The Betsy Ross house
unfortunately was closed

Christ Church Burial Ground





Amazing Liberty Bell at the Liberty Bell Center

and up close..


Chinatown:

"Science" and JSTOR

This just in from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The Journal 'Science' Rejoins JSTOR

The influential journal Science has reversed course and rejoined JSTOR, The Chronicle has learned. The journal and the popular online archive of scholarly publications reached an agreement this morning, said a spokesperson for Science. The journal’s decision to withdraw last summer was the subject of much criticism by librarians and others.

Neither Science nor JSTOR would describe the terms of the new license, but Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal, said the changes had to do with price and with linking of articles within JSTOR to other articles. “We’re very pleased about it,” he said.

Michael P. Spinella, executive director of JSTOR, echoed Mr. Leshner’s cheer. “I think it’s very good for everyone,” he said. —Lila

Rose Parade Floats

We live on the street which gets closed for the Rose Parade floats viewing. It's a pain to get around, especially on the 2-nd of January, but it also gives us an opportunity to pet the horses:

and look at the floats:



Year 2008 is a year of a Brown Earth Rat:


More floats:

And of course I couldn't help but posting this:


more:

Deer

I almost forgot to mention deer, which came down to my in-laws house and looked at us through the window:

It was the most patient deer, letting us to take plenty of pictures!

Trip to Klamath Falls

We went to Klamath Falls, OR for Christmas to see Katrina's grandparents. The 11-hour drive wasn't that bad thanks to dvd player and plenty of lollypops:)


It was nice for a change to wake up and see snow on Christmas morning and then go outside and play snow balls and ride down the hill on the sled.

I think this was the BEST Christmas ever!!!!

Young Librarians, Talkin' 'Bout Their Generation

I noticed that ever since I started my Reference and Publishing classes I haven't been able to blog as often as before. Two more months and I'll be done! YES! I can claim some of my social life back, kick back with popcorn and a movie on the couch instead of coffee and a computer on Saturday night.

Rita sent us the article from Chronicle of Higher Education. I agree and I like what J West said: "Theoretically we have the power to do that", check it and see for yourself.

Young Librarians, Talkin' 'Bout Their Generation

By SCOTT CARLSON

Most people are familiar with the stereotype of librarians. They are twenty- or thirtysomethings, with tattoos, cat's-eye glasses, and vintage clothes, schmoozing with famous authors, and playing DJ at parties in Brooklyn.

Wait, that's just the stereotype in The New York Times. Last summer the newspaper declared young librarians hip — and, in the minds of some librarians, actually reinforced the other stereotype: that older members of their profession are reclusive bookworms and cranky old ladies.

Whether young librarians are hip or dowdy doesn't matter. What matters is what they think about the future of the library, particularly at academic institutions.

Libraries are facing a series of immense challenges: the explosion of information, a rapidly changing technological environment, shrinking budgets, pitched battles over copyright, a new world of information literacy, and continuing deficiencies in old-fashioned literacy.

On top of it all, academic libraries face a crisis of graying leadership. Young librarians, hip or not, will eventually be the people dealing with these issues.

This month The Chronicle contacted eight librarians under 40 and asked them a series of questions about the future of their profession, including: What will happen to the book? How will battles over copyright play out? What do you love and hate about librarianship? Here is what they said: Read more here

PCG unveils research into the evolution of renewals trends over the last four years

The results are fascinating, read and see for yourself.

Frederick Herzberg Hygiene theory

The air conditioning on our second floor stopped working last week just before Labor Day. It's been a week and it still not fixed, ah....Have you ever tried working in a hot, stuffy room day after day after day? I wouldn't advise it: besides being lulled to sleep buy constant droning of fans, it's just plain miserable working conditions! Reminded me of our management class at Pitt and Frederick Herzberg and his motivation-hygiene theory.

Tomsk State Pedagogical University

I just found out that the Tomsk State Pedagogical University (former Institute) from where I graduated in 1995 finally have its web page, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! The page is slow, but information gained is worth waiting for.

America's Best Colleges

"U.S. News and World Report College/University Rankings Released" was sent to the listserve today. Three places which hold my interest did pretty well on the America's Top Colleges 2008 list:

#5 California Institute of Technology
# 27 University of Southern California
# 59 University of Pittsburgh

LibSite

Check this out and see if you like it: LibSite

Trip to Pittsburgh

It's been more than a month since I came back from Pittsburgh and finally posting the pictures. I loved the color of the sky, the flowers and the greenery, friendly people and kick back atmosphere. Coming from busy LA it was a nice change of pace. Our MLIS group did a great presentation on economics and though I stayed only a day it was great to see familiar faces.

Here is the view from above:


And amazing Pittsburgh sky:

More sky:

Open Access Research

This was in one of the emails I've received and I couldn't help but post it. It's a follow up to what I posted on 09/08/2006

House Backs Taxpayer-Funded Research Access
Final Appropriations Bill Mandates Free Access
to NIH Research Findings

Washington, D.C. – July 20, 2007 – In what advocates hailed as a major advance for scientific communication, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday approved a measure directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide free public online access to agency-funded research findings within 12 months of their publication in a peer-reviewed journal. With broad bipartisan support, the House passed the provision as part of the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill.

READ MORE...

Scirus and CiteULike

While doing my research project on link resolvers I saw a mention of Scirus and CiteULike

Library Workout

Jean emailed this to me last year and I am finally posting it here. The Advanced horizontal drawer pull always makes me laugh and reminds of time I did it in ARGO.

Stressful Jobs: Librarians!

Did you know that library job is one of the most stressful? I didn't, but according to BBC News, it is so:

Librarians 'suffer most stress'

Working in libraries has been commonly thought a stress-free job

Fighting fires may sound taxing, chasing criminals demanding, but a new study says that working in a library is the most stressful job of all.

Librarians are the most unhappy with their workplace, often finding their job repetitive and unchallenging, according to psychologist Saqib Saddiq.

He will tell the British Psychological Society that one in three workers suffer from poor psychological health.

The study surveyed nearly 300 people drawn from five occupations.

They were firefighters, police officers, train operators, teachers and librarians and were intended to cover the spectrum, with the librarians first-thought to be the least stressful occupation.

SEE MORE

Freebase: Semantic Web 3.0 database

And the interview with it's creator